Prof. Inger Björck 

		Prof. Inger Björck Professor in food related nutrition at the div of Applied Nutrition and Food Chemistry, and Director of the Fucntional Food Science Centre, LU. Since 20y been involved in research related to the impact of various types of processing, including biochemical processes, on the nutritional and functional properties of food products, with emphasis on proteins and carbohydrates. Main research topics concern starch bioavailability, evaluation of post prandial blood glucose- and insulin responses, and satiety, and how these parameters are affected by choice of raw material and processing. Another important topic concerns resistant starch, its formation during food processing and the nutritional implications in the large bowel e.g. fermentability, faecal bulking capacity. One field in which the group has taken a leading position internationally concerns the optimisation of the nutritional properties of starch in food. In particular they have established considerable knowledge regarding both the nutritional motives and the technological means to development of low glycemic index (GI) cereal products. The group is involved in international collaborations regarding the standardisation of the methodology for GI determination, and regarding the clinical utility of low GI diets. The group has participated in several EU programs (EURESTA, PROFIBRE, FUFOSE, EUROSTARCH). Inger Björck is currently module leader of functional food related activities within a regional food innovation cluster (Food Innovation at Interfaces) funded by the Swedish Agency for Innovation. She also head the "GI-Expert laboratory", LU, focusing on in vitro and in vivo documentation of the glycaemic impact of foods on request from national and international food industries. The scientific production includes 294 items with 108 original articles, 10 book chapters and consensus documents, 151 conference proceedings and abstracts and 25 articles of popular or educational character.

Prof. Cecilia Holm 
Dr. Anne Nilsson 
Dr. Elin Östman 

The organisation: The Lund University (LU), founded in 1666, is the largest university in Scandinavia, with its eight faculties and multitude of research centres and specialised institutes. Approximately 41,000 students study within the 85 educational programmes, the twelve international masters programs or the 1,100 courses. The University is the only Nordic member of U 21, an international network of 17 outstanding universities from ten countries. Research of the highest international class is carried out in several cutting-edge research fields within a wide range of disciplines. The breadth is also evident in the special centres where researchers collaborate across faculty boundaries. One of these is the Lund Food Science Centre which includes as a core activity the Functional Food Science Centre (FFSC) comprising 70 research leaders from 5 faculties and 35 research divisions.

The div of Applied Nutrition and Food Chemistry is organised within the Department of Food Technology, Engineering and Nutrition at the technical faculty (Lund Institute of Technology). The div. has access to advanced instruments for food analysis and experience in a wide range of methods for nutrition studies regarding e.g. in vitro models predictive of events in the gastro-intestinal channel, bioavailability aspects, prebiotic carbohydrates, glucose tolerance, tailoring of glycaemic- and hormonal responses to food products, process induced carcinogens. The div. has long experience in research related to the impact of various types of processing on the nutritional properties of food products. Focus has been on the nutritional characteristics of carbohydrates, especially starch and dietary fibre; and of proteins. Other competences within the Department include food engineering and food technology.

The Biomedical Center (BMC) is the biggest research institution at Lund University, comprising about 40% of the research and teaching at the Faculty of Medicine. It is houses all preclinical, biomedical research at the faculty, and most of the clinical experimental research in Lund. All in all around 700 scientists (in 90 research groups) work at the BMC. The Molecular Endocrinology group (Holm laboratory) is one of 5 research groups at the Section for Molecular Signalling within the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. The group is renting around 500 sq. meters of laboratories plus animal quarters for mouse models and rats. Besides own equipment, including necessary small equipment, a 15 L bioreactor, a fluorescence microscope, a combined luminometer/fluorometer, a Silicon Graphics workstation and a real-time PCR machine the group has access to common facilities at the Dept./BMC, i.e. cell culture facilities and heavy equipment, including a fluorescence-equipped laser-capture microdissection instrument and a dexa-scanner for laboratory animals. Through colleagues and collaborators within and outside the BMC, including our colleagues within the faculty-funded Diabetes Research Program, we have access to MALDI-TOF instruments, FACS and confocal and electron microscopes. Central to the project is also the availability of the Swegene technology platform for postgenomic research, providing expertise and competence in microarray, proteomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics etc.

Website: http://www.lu.se/